Sunday, July 24, 2011

Does it make you wonder??


Some things just make me wonder sometimes.  Do you wonder why the world gets so upset when people are killed in a disaster or a shooting or bomb - but it doesn't really upset those same people that millions of babies die every year by choice?  Where is the backwards thinking in that?  And who is it that feels they get to decide whose life is important and whose is not?  It just makes me wonder.

Do you ever wonder why Christians are considered to be so intolerant and narrow-minded.  But the same people who are making those accusations don't consider themselves intolerant of Christians?  How does that make any sense? And then there's the belief by some that there is no absolute truth.  Ask them how they come to that - and they say that everyone has a right to what they believe in - and whatever someone believes in makes it true.  Now how in the world is that even possible?  And if that is right - doesn't that mean that murders, rapists, or every other bad person in general actually is ok - because if that's what they believe in, then it must be right?  How ridiculous is that?

Another thing that makes me wonder is when I go into a shop or a store and the sales clerk is snobby.  Seriously?  What is going on with that?!  I'm there to shop - and they are supposed to be making my shopping experience good.  Makes me want to ask "Do you know which side of the counter are you are on?"  There's just no sense in such attitudes.  

And what about people who cheat in their relationships - and then leave their spouse for the person they are cheating with.  Hmmm... talk about a relationship built on sinking sand!  So if they get married, what do they think with the words "I promise to be faithful..." when they've already proven that they are not a faithful person!  There are a lot of people out there who need to wake up and use some common sense here!  

Doesn't it make you wonder when you have to deal with someone who is jealous or has an attitude of entitlement.  What is really up with that?  Why does someone think that if I get something (or do something) that means that they have a right to the same thing?  We are all individuals - we have different talents, personalities, strengths & weakness -- and the roads we are to travel in life are not always the same.  What is wrong with being your own individual self and being happy with that?  

Seriously - don't you just wonder sometimes? 

Thursday, July 21, 2011


Are you a late-night person -- or an early morning person?  For a long time I was probably more of a morning person - feeling that I had wasted the best part of the day if it was later than 7:30 when I woke up!  But as time has passed, the kids have grown up, and the world of photography has kind of taken over somewhat in my life and time... I have become more of a late-night person.  There are things I like about them both, though.  

Late at night when it's dark I seem to be less distracted.  Wherever I sit in my house there is bound to be a window not too far away -- afterall, there are over 40 windows in my house!  So during the daytime I find myself peering out, watching the birds or the bunnies in the yard... seeing who that was I saw walking through the neighbors yard, trying to figure out why the neighbors don't get their roof fixed... on and on.  But at night - it's dark.  I can't see anything, unless it's the moon or a streetlight.  So I find that it's just much easier to keep my mind on editing.  Now in the morning, though, I LOVE to sit out on my screened back porch.  I can see the lake, and usually at that time of day the water is so still and peaceful.  The birds are chirping like crazy, and there's nothing more peaceful than a cup of coffee while listening to the birds singing over the silence.  It's really rather perfect!  

How do you work best?  I always have the internet up - have to keep check on fb, friends, etc.  But that helps utilize my time while I'm waiting for a picture to go through this program or that one.   Often I will put on music -- something that interests me and holds me... keeps my mind from wandering off to something other than what I'm supposed to be doing!  My mood for music is different each day, and even through the day it may change ten times. But that's ok - my itunes is packed with variety.  

So how do you work best?  What makes you as good a person as you can be - thus making you the best in your field that you can be?  

My huge thought for the day is: Be who you really are all the time.   If you are ashamed to be yourself, then get some help with those issues.  And don't claim to believe something that you really don't - or to be someone what you really aren't.  You are only cheating yourself the most!

Goodnight, everyone!!  Hope to see you back really soon!!  Oh - and if you get a chance, go check out my website.  Big news is coming soon about Photography by DonnaKay!!  So say tuned!! 

Monday, July 18, 2011

Secrets....good or bad?


Have you ever had to keep a secret?  Not a good one, like what someone is getting for their birthday or Christmas present, but rather a bad secret that you knew was going to really destroy someones life as they know it?  How did you handle it?  We are all a little different in our likes and dislikes, as well as how we might handle such an issue.  Some people would rather just not know something bad - even if it would directly affect them.  But I've never really seen a time when keeping such a secret was a good thing in the end.   So another way to look at the question is this: have you ever had a secret kept from you that was sure to hurt you... and then later found out?  Were you one who wished you had never found out -- or one who felt you had a right to know the truth?  I'm one who believes everything is always best out in the open.  Truthfully, I don't even like surprises such as Christmas presents!  I've had enough bad surprises in my life that I just really don't like surprises at all any longer.  But I do realize that there is a difference in a good surprise and a bad deception, betrayal or lie.   
Still there is that issue of knowing something that would hurt someone else - and whether you tell them because they have the right to know.  I believe you have an obligation to tell.  If they choose to do nothing after the fact, then that is their decision.  But they have every right to make that decision for themselves.  Living with your "head in the sand" has never accomplished anything.  And consider this: maybe if the truth comes out sooner, there will be time for something to be done about the situation before it has gotten so out of hand that it no longer has a chance.  


Saturday, July 9, 2011

Let me tell you a story....


More and more often lately I find that time has passed by and I've neglected to write on this blog!  It's definitely not from lack of things to write about.  I'm sure I've mentioned that my life has been full of excitement throughout.  So in the middle of this particular night, since I can't sleep, I'll tell you a story.  First, though, I need to give you a tiny bit of history.  I am married to my 2nd husband... he adopted my 3 kids very soon after we were married.  But the story I'm going to tell you is about a time when I was still married to my first husband.  

I was close to 7 months pregnant with my 3rd child - my daughter.  And my two little boys were still very young - probably about 15 months and 36 months at the time.  At this time my brother and his wife were not married yet - and I believe they might have been broken up for the moment.  Continue reading and you'll see why I even mention that fact.  Ok...

It was the middle of the night, and everyone was sound asleep.  Sleep was definitely a precious thing to me at this point in my pregnancy.  My belly was huge, and I probably looked like I was delivering triplets at any moment.  At least, that's how many people acted!  But seriously, I was miserable.  My back and hips hurt, and sleep was almost impossible simply because I couldn't find a comfortable position to lay in when I would go to bed.  But this night I was asleep.  All of a sudden the doorbell was ringing like crazy!!  Now you would think my concern would be for who would be ringing my doorbell in the middle of the night - but I was almost 7 months pregnant with two other babies who I did NOT want woken up in the middle of the night!  So I got to the front door fast.  My husband was right there behind me, trying to tell me not to just open the door.  I figured it had to be my brother - that maybe he and his girlfriend had been fighting or something.  We had those little windows down the side of the front door - so I pulled back the little curtain that was over the window and flipped on the front porch light.  Only, I didn't see anyone standing there - and certainly didn't see my brother.   But the doorbell continued to ring.  So I started peeking out the edge of the window, trying to see what I was missing -- see if someone was in the blind spot that would have been directly in front of the door.  What I saw was a man kind of sitting all leaned up against the front door - with his arm up just hitting the doorbell over and over again.  Now the odd thing was that we didn't live in some busy apartment complex, or somewhere in a bad neighborhood that something like this would be going on.  Rather, we lived in a very quiet neighborhood that never really saw any excitement.  Anyway... I wanted to open the door and beat this man who was ringing the doorbell - and kept trying to make him understand through the window and door that I was not going to open the door - and to please stop ringing the bell.  Then I grabbed the phone and called 911.  Not too long after they answered and I explained what was going on they said, "Do NOT open your door or go outside.  Stay away from your doors - make sure they are locked."  Apparently the Sheriff's Dept was looking for a man who had been in an argument and had gotten shot and then run off... and guess where he had ended up?!!  Now the man wasn't from our neighborhood - but it wasn't too far outside of it and he had just come down through the trees into our backyard.  We had a gate on our back porch to keep the boys on it when they were playing - and after all was finished up we figured out from the blood trail that this man had tried unsuccessfully to get on our back porch.  What a blessing that he wasn't able to figure out the latch.  
Well, there I was on the phone with dispatcher at 911 - and I started having contractions.... probably from all of the adrenaline going on over the situation.  But pretty quickly I was very uncomfortable, and breathing a little faster.  So the dispatcher asked me if I was okay, and I mentioned that I was almost 7 months pregnant.  That was maybe not the best thing to tell them, because then they were sending out another ambulance to check me out as well!  Just great!    It wasn't too long before we had firetrucks, 1st responders, Sheriff cars and even some unmarked cars all in our driveway -- and very soon even a couple of ambulances... and they quickly got the shot man loaded up and were on their way with him to the hospital.  They wanted to take me in to the hospital to be checked out since I was having such hard contractions, but I wouldn't hear of it.  My little boys were asleep, and I knew they would be very alarmed to wake up and find me not there... so I opted to just stay home.  Everything there turned out fine - it absolutely was just the over excitement of the nights events.  Apparently the man lost part of his leg since he was shot at pretty close range with a shotgun.  The man who shot him - well, I'm not really sure what ever happened to him!  But the woman they were fighting about -- I think she was history after all of that!  

I'd love to hear some of your stories sometime!  I find it so interesting some of the things other people go through in just their normal little lives.  I know mine has always had plenty of events that seemed too strange to even be real.  
I hope you have a GREAT Saturday - and a wonderful weekend!!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

The Green Thing....


This is actually a copy of an email that I received from a friend... but it made quite an impact on me.  I DO believe in being careful about our environment - so I do have the reusable shopping bags and all of that. The message in this rings so loud and true!  I hope you'll pass it on as well.... (and I'm 45-yrs-old, so much of this is how it was when I was a child... it's not the "old" people who lived like this!)

The Green Thing















But they didn't have the green thing back then.





Friday, July 1, 2011

Sharing a little heart in pain....


Before you start reading this, I'm going to warn you.  This is very close and personal.  I'm crying as I write this, and a little bit of my soul will be "put out there" in this blog.  So -- if that's too much for you, then click off now...

Have you ever been hurt so much by someone that you thought the pain would make you stop breathing?  Or maybe just hoped that you wouldn't have to breath for a while -- it just hurt too much?  As much as I am sharing in this blog, I'm not going to go into great detail as to who hurt me this way or how... this is not about punishing or humiliating someone else.  It's about the fact that today my heart is hurting so badly that I just wish terribly that there was a magic button to push to make me feel NOTHING for just a little while.  Sometimes I feel as if I'm on a merry-go-round... and not the beautiful one you see at a park with the whimsical music -- but rather one in a nightmare that you are stuck on and can't get off.  There are days that I am tough and think "I'm ok - I can get through anything...." but then there are the days like this one, where my heart aches to the very core.  I am angry that I'm still hurting so badly, and wish someone could give me a secret answer to fix this.  The trouble with someone hurting you in such a way is that trust is destroyed -- and since trust has always been something very hard for me to extend anyway, it seems almost like a word with no meaning to me now.  Each day I work to put the pieces back together... to find a feeling of normalcy after what has happened... but day by day what I usually find lurking around is a heart that still has a lot of hurt.

To me there is a lesson in everything.  I don't believe God wastes any of our experiences, mistakes, heartaches - anything!  I think it's all about learning and becoming wiser and stronger.  And hopefully seeing that without God in my life, I can't get through the tough times, and don't want to go through even the good times without His guidance.

If you've ever been heartbroken by someone - just hold on patiently...  hold on to faith that everyone doesn't hurt you, believe that things will get better (even if that means they will be different, and you may not have the same people in your life)... know that God loves you and HE will never leave you nor forsake you.  When I try to figure out why God would let me go through this huge heartbreak in my life, I often think it's to toughen me up for something even bigger -- maybe to prepare me to be able to be there for someone else who is going to go through something painful in their own life.  Whatever the reason, I hold on each day, I find the Joy in my heart, and I trust that one day the pain will go away... or hopefully at least lessen to a dull throb.